A Timely Meeting
by JayIshida
Summary: Adam is a lone Pokémon trainer who is fighting with his psychic Pokemon. There is someone in the midst ... who is it?
1. A Timely Meeting

Adam strolled down the cold heartless street; most of the shops were closed. The town was empty; only a few of the 24-hour shops were open. The cold wind slapped him in the face as he walked. He couldn't remember really why he came out in such foul weather but he had a purpose. He continued to walk remembering some of the things that had happened to him in the year. He'd managed to form a deeper friendship with his Pokémon friends; he never really travelled with anyone, only his Pokémon. He was shocked that he hadn't gone insane by now. He'd also managed to get 8 badges for the Pokémon league. This was it, what he'd been working for was finally coming to pass. Competing meant so much, yet so little to Adam; he'd trained his Pokémon hard for this. He was determined to beat everyone else and he knew that with his Pokémon, anything was possible.

He arrived at the colossal building. It was enormous; bigger than anything he had ever seen before in his life. He starred up and looked directly at it. The structure was unique yet simplistic. He knew this was a moment in time he would never forget. He pushed the solid metal door open, just enough, so he could slip in. He then closed the door behind him and looked inside. What faced him was the biggest Pokémon stadium he had ever seen. The arena was open all hours but no trainers came here at this time, it was so late. No one would dream of being here the night before the competition started. He walked into the empty arena; it had almost an eerie feel to it. This was a place that should never be empty for the spirits of past trainers whistled through the empty stalls; Adam could feel it in his bones. He walked into the middle of the battling arena and studied it closely. It was simplistic but it was important to know the field of battle, to see if there were any weaknesses that could be exploited. His first match was on the ice field. He grabbed two Pokéballs from his belt and let the two Pokémon out. His Wartortle and Gengar stood proud in front of him, awaiting his commands.

"Take your positions." He stated. His command was clear and decisive. To most people he would seem heartless. Battling his Pokémon right before a match, pitting one of them against the other. His voice seemed flat, without tone, but Adam's heart and soul was in this. He never left anything to chance when it came to battling Pokémon and his Pokémon knew that. Wartortle and Gengar ran to the middle of the ring and faced each other. They stood a fair distance apart from each other to start with; the two Pokémon smiled in the face of battle. "Are you ready?" Adam asked from the side of the ring. Gengar had taught him psychically how to speak his Pokémon's language, so he understood his Pokémon as clear as day.

"Gar." Gengar said with affirmatively

"Tortle." Wartortle replied with daggers for eyes.

"Then Wartortle, Ice Beam NOW!" The commands he shouted out to his Pokémon were nothing like before; they were filled with passion, caring; something he always had during a battle. His Pokémon were the most important thing that he knew but not a lot of people understood that. Wartortle quickly opened its mouth and fired a beam of ice at Gengar, which managed to just barely dodge it. "Gengar Confuse RAY!" Gengar put its two hands up and spread soft light rays towards Wartortle, which started to stager as it got caught up in them. Adam hesitated a bit, he didn't want to, but he had no choice. "Gengar… Psychic!" Gengar nodded as it put its hands to its temples then pushed them out in front of him; a purple light surrounded Wartortle as he started to lift of the ground. Wartortle was flung up to a great height. Adam quickly had an idea just before Gengar dropped him; Wartortle looked alive again now. "Wartortle use withdraw!" Adam screamed at the top of his lungs. The turtle like Pokémon barely heard but got the message, it tried to retreat into its shell but it couldn't; the psychic attack had blocked its ability to use its own limbs. Gengar flung his arms down which resulted in Wartortle flying towards the ground at an incredible speed. The powerless Pokémon still trying to retreat into its shell failed as it hit the floor. Dust flew up and Surrounded Wartortle. Adam was about to run over to Wartortle to help him but stopped and walked instead. He got to Wartortles side and bent down. "Are you OK?" He asked; now back to that flat tone but Wartortle knew he cared. The weary Pokémon nodded its head gently.

"I'm fine." It replied. Adam got the Pokéball and returned Wartortle to his belt. Gengar walked over to Adam.

"I don't think he's gonna be able to win in the ice field tournament." Gengar stared intently into Adams eyes. He needed to show Adam that what he was saying was out of love for his friend.

"No. Wartortle will be fine tomorrow. I know he can do it and if I didn't use him to battle I'd be a bad trainer and a bad friend." As Adam finished Gengar smiled and nodded. "Plus, you are one tough ghost Pokémon." The two laughed light-heartedly. "We best be getting back." Adam checked his watch "4:45am, well it's a competition day so we can go and heal Wartortle at 5. May as well make our way to the centre now." Adam started to walk off.

"Adam wait." Gengar stopped Adam in his tracks. "Are you sure this is how you want to keep training? I saw you out there. I've been your friend for a long time and I know when you hesitate, something's up. Is everything alright?" Gengar looked up to Adam as he waited for his answer.

"I don't know… I've always trained you guys this way and it's worked pretty well but… I've just not been feeling myself recently." Adam sighed.

"OK but this type of training only works if you're prepared to stay tough and not be weak with your Pokémon. Let's get Wartortle to the Pokémon centre before it gets crowded." The two walked off in the direction of the centre. It was still windy and bitterly cold but Gengar didn't mind; he'd always been there for Adam and he wasn't about to stop now. The two pushed through the doors of the Pokémon centre, trying not to wake anyone up. The nurse Joy behind the counter yawned sleepily, I mean it was 5am only Adam and his Pokémon tended to be up at this time. Well… he did know one other person but he hadn't seen him in years. Nurse Joy spoke quietly as to not wake the other trainers.

"How may I help you?" Adam was looking around the room like a hawk; checking everyone out. Gengar nudged his knee.

"Oh … right … yeah." Adam grabbed the Pokéball from the back of his belt. "Could you heal my Wartortle please?" She nodded and took the Pokéball into the back room and returned to make small talk, as Nurse Joy's seemed to be famous for.

"Well you're up early, why so? Competition doesn't start for a while yet." She asked, expressing her gossiping nature.

"Oh, I just wanted to get some extra training in with my Wartortle before the competition started; then to beat the crush here." Adam turned back to check the people lounging around the centre.

"Ahhh, you must be Adam then. You're fighting on the Ice field first right?"

"Yeah, I am." Adam turned back to face her only momentarily, then returned to his systematic search of the centre.

"Well your Wartortle will take about an hour to heal. If you'd like you can stay here and get some rest." Adam looked at her and contemplated his options.

"What do yah think Gengar?"

"Ugh. Let's rest, I really need a brake." Adam nodded and walked over to a seat by the window; he sat down but jumped up quickly, remembering about his other Pokémon. He grabbed the 4 remaining Pokéballs left on his belt and opened them up; his remaining Pokémon popped out in a white flash of light.

"Hey a Pokémon centre, cool, that means some R 'n' R." Hitmonchan said as he slid down to rest against the chair Adam was sitting on.

"Meh, I'm not tired. I'm just gonna meditate." Kadabra slowly floated off the ground in a typical meditative position. Growlithe just yawned and jumped up onto Adam's lap; Adam wriggled slightly with Growlithe and they settled in.

"I have too much energy, I need to battle!" Scyther said noisily, nearly waking everyone up.

"Shhhh!" Nurse Joy looked over at Adam, signalling frantically to him to keep his Pokémon quiet.

"Come on Scyther relax. If you want to go back in the Pokéball that's fine. I just thought you might like to stretch out." Adam said trying to calm Scyther down a bit. "Actually Scyther you need some rest. I have the perfect solution that should work for a while." Gengar laughed and nodded. "Gengar. Hypnosis." Gengar started to emit Hypnotic waves from its eyes and moved its hands from side to side. Scyther looked drowsy and after an enormous yawn, fell into a heap leaning against the chair like Hitmonchan.

"That should keep him under for about a half an hour." Gengar chuckled then went to sit looking out of the window; he couldn't sleep. Unlike the rest of his friends who were out like a light, except Kadabra who might as well of been. He looked impatiently out of the window wondering, almost looking for something he couldn't find. He decided to do something instead of just sitting here. He remembered his dream eater attack worked in two ways; it let him eat dreams but also let him view them. He hoped up behind Adam, who looked like he was almost in a coma. The Pokémon closed his eyes and placed his two clawed hands over Adam's head, while emitting a rainbow-coloured light that hit nearly hit Adam's entire head. Gengar cringed as he received the images Adam was dreaming.

The rain beat down on Adam's face, he pushed his way through a sea of people all in black. Each person had a black umbrella; each one was exactly like the other. Adam panicked and grabbed one of them, shaking them awake. He looked at their face but they didn't have one, just a smooth flat surface. Adam turned each person round and looked at them one by one. They were all the same. How could they see where they were going? They didn't need to; they were all walking towards the same place. Adam tried to look for someone he knew or someone was different but there wasn't anyone. He was alone in this dream world. He couldn't find who he was looking for. He just walked with everyone else in the end; his spirit crushed. He quickly changed to be like everyone else.

Gengar suddenly snapped out of Adam's dream or more accurately nightmare. He felt something he didn't know what, it was a force, something familiar yet totally alien. He looked over to Kadabra.

"You feel it too?" Kadabra asked, feeling uneasy about being snapped out of its meditation. It floated back down to the ground. Gengar nodded. "Maybe we should go and investigate?" Kadabra wanted to find out what this strange almost intrusive feeling was.

"Yeah but… maybe we should wake Adam first?" Gengar was worried about him and didn't really want to leave him.

"What, you can't handle yourself without Adam?" Gengar looked at Kadabra with stern eyes. "Look he's sleeping, which isn't something he does very often, let's leave him be OK?" Gengar nodded in agreement and the two went outside, slipping past Nurse Joy who was in the back. They waited a minute to make sure they knew which way the feeling was coming from, it was to the left. They floated off down the path, since it was quicker to fly than to walk. The sensation got stronger as they travelled along the path, Gengar could start to feel it more clearly now; it was a person. He flew faster and faster but it was still a good 10 minutes before the two of them saw something on the horizon. It became clearer as they got nearer and finally Gengar could see what it was and he smiled. He made a passing glance at Kadabra and saw that he was smiling too. They finally knew who it was.


	2. History Unravels Itself

It was Ash. A lot older than the last time they had seen him but it was still Ash … and … was that Pikachu? Gengar and Kadabra finally reached them and stopped dead smiling.

"What the? Who are you?" Ash questioned the two Pokémon stood stock still in front of him. I mean why would a Gengar and a Kadabra just be sitting here in front of him? The little mouse Pokémon on his shoulder eyed the Pokémon curiously. Gengar looked to Pikachu and pulled his tongue out; put his hands over his eyes and pulled them off his face. Pikachu giggled at the silly ghost Pokémon but then it clicked. "Heh. Well if you're not anyone's Pokémon I may as well capture you. You look pretty strong; even though it is 5:30 in the morning." Ash grabbed a poke ball from his pocket. Gengar and Kadabra looked pretty shocked. Ash was about to through the Pokéball when Pikachu jumped down in front of them to stop Ash.

"Ash NO!" Ash stopped dead and scratched his head.

"Do you know them Pikachu?" Ash took a long hard look at the two Pokémon but still nothing clicked. Pikachu turned round to Gengar.

"Wow, you got a bit bigger than the last time I saw you and you too Kadabra." Pikachu smiled and the three friends laughed. "Where's Adam?" Pikachu questioned. He knew he couldn't be far away. Ash just stood in amazement as he watched the three Pokémon talk.

"He's at a Pokémon centre up the road about 10 minutes away - well if you fly that is. Me and Gengar could sense your presence coming, so we flew down to see what it was." Kadabra smiled. "I never imagined it would be you."

"Really – wow - that's sorta spooky in a way" Pikachu just grinned. "but you guys did always creep me out a little. Well me and Ash, here, were heading up there our selves. We fought some pretty tough customers on the way up here; so some of the gang need healing at the centre up there." Kadabra and Gengar nodded.

"Then lets go." Gengar said pointing down the path.

"Come on Ash!" Pikachu motioned Ash to follow and jumped up on Ash's shoulder. Ash just shrugged.

"OK then. I hope you know what you're doing." Ash walked diligently down the path with Pikachu on his shoulder and Gengar and Kadabra floating either side of him. It took them twenty minutes to get to the centre, walking was not as fast as flying. By this time it was 5:50am - the lot of them crept into the Pokémon centre.

"Hello how may I help yo..." Nurse Joy stumbled when she saw Gengar floating beside Ash. "Hey. Haven't I seen you before?" Gengar shook his head "Yeah, you're that Adam kids Pokémon! Yah know he'll be waking up so..." This time Nurse Joy was interrupted by Ash.

"Excuse me, did you say Adam?" Nurse Joy nodded. Ash wailed back around to look at the two Pokémon. "OF COURSE!" Ash shouted out feeling about as intelligent as a guppy.

"SHHH! You'll wake the other trainers!" Nurse Joy said in a harsh whisper. "Now do you want any help or are you just here to rest?" She asked going back to her more collected self.

"Oh yeah. Here." Ash laid down Squirtle's and Bulbasaur's Pokéballs. "Can you heal these two for me?" She nodded and scuttled off to the back room with the balls. Ash quickly turned back to Gengar and Kadabra. "Where's Adam?" He had a certain level of excitement in his voice. The two Pokémon just smiled and floated off around the corner where Adam was still sitting in the chair, sleeping with Growlithe in his lap. Ash sneaked up to him and started to nudge him. Adam slowly started to open his eyes hazily. He started to see a black blob and a brownish blob just below it; it all started to come into focus a bit. "Hey Adam." Ash spoke in a bouncy voice. Adam rubbed his eyes slowly.

"Who are you? and why are you waking me…" His vision finally came back into focus. He couldn't believe it. He rubbed his eyes again just too make sure. "Ash!" Another 'Shhh!' was heard from Nurse Joy "Sorry Nurse Joy. I can't believe you're here!" Ash nodded with a gigantic grin reaching from ear to ear spread on his face. Adam started to wake his Pokémon up. Growlithe was the first one up and he yawned drowsily.

"Adam … why did yah wake me up?" Growlithe said. Yawning again so Adam got the message that he wanted to sleep.

"All will be revealed in a sec. Just let me wake the others." Growlithe nodded, while lying down on the floor putting its head on its paws. While Adam woke his other Pokémon up, Ash inspected Growlithe. He crouched down and lent his arms on his two knees. He put his hand out gently and rubbed behind Growlith's ears. Growlithe stood up quickly and looked Ash in the eyes. Grumbles and moans were heard from Hitmonchan and Scyther as Adam woke them up. Growlithe saw something in Ash's eyes that he thought only Adam had; he then realised that Ash loved Pokémon just like Adam. Growlithe jumped up and pounced on Ash lightly and started to lick his face. Ash just laughed and stroked Growlithe; the dog Pokémon bounded back off Ash after a while of stroking and face licking. Finally, now, the other Pokémon were up.

"Right. I got you up so you could meet a really good friend of mine, his name is Ash and this is his Pokémon Pikachu…" Adam paused for a second. "Hey Ash do you have your other Pokémon with you?"

"Never leave home without 'em." Ash grabbed the three remaining Pokémon from his belt and opened them up. A Pidgeot, Charizard and Chikorita appeared before their eyes. Growlithe walked up to Charizard and seized him up.

"Heh. Well … hey. You're … big." Growlithe smiled nervously. Charizard gave out a throaty chuckle.

"Heh and your small kid, what's it too yah?" Growlithe shot daggers from his eyes and growled angrily at the huge, fire-breathing, dragon in front of him.

"I'm no kid; I'm 25!" Charizard just laughed even more at Growlithe.

"You're … 25!" Charizard nearly started to cry with laughter. Growlithe just seethed with rage at the insults being thrown towards him. Adam quickly spotted Growlith's fury and grabbed him before he tried to attack Charizard; Adam could see where that would end up.

"Heh, fire Pokémon … way too much pride." Adam smiled at his old friend. Hitmonchan and Scyther walked up to Pidgeot and Chikorita.

"Sooooooo … hey." Hitmonchan said clumsily to Pidgeot. None of them really knew what to say to each other. Seeing how most of them spent their time; either with their trainer or in their Pokéball. Social skills were lacking.

Pikachu, the old observant soul, had noticed the others inability to make small talk; he turned to Gengar and Kadabra. "Look. This isn't working; we need to get them outside, so Adam and Ash can catch up."

"Yeah, you're right. We better pick straws on who gets to keep Growlithe and Charizard from trying to kill each other." Kadabra smiled as he spoke, the others chuckled. The three of them went over to their trainers. "Hey Adam we're going to go outside for a while. We all need to stretch off a bit and Scyther is looking a little restless." Adam nodded then turned to Ash.

"Hey. The Pokémon are going outside to stretch off, OK?" Ash looked concerned for a minute - as it was against his nature to leave his Pokémon by themselves - but as there were 9 of them; he thought they could handle themselves.

"Sure." The two tired and weary trainers sat down; as they did it seemed like they were inspecting each other. "Hey, yah want something to drink?" Adam nodded like a maniac. Ash and his famous backpack, he swore his mum packed every possible item into that thing. Ash handed him a small cup with some steaming hot chocolate in it.

"What, no little marshmallows too?" Ash laughed.

"Nope, not this time my friend." Adam sipped his hot chocolate and sighed.

"I really needed this. I don't think I've eaten or drink anything for the last two or three days. I only have just enough money to pay for their food, let alone mine. Soon I'm gonna be eating Growlith's kibble."

"I didn't realise you were low on cash. I never seemed to have a problem when Brock was around. I mean it was cool; he could cook from the surrounding plants but me ... I have your problem. I can't cook." The two laughed.

"Ash … what happened to Brock and Misty? I mean, the last time I spoke to Brock was when I was with you and Misty … well …" Ash interrupted.

"We just sort of … went our own ways. I mean, we had been travelling together for a long time and Brock wanted to go back and see his family. Misty just … wanted to go home, I guess. They got sick of travelling I think." Ash sipped his hot chocolate. "I really miss them but … there's not a lot I can do about it." Ash looked into his hot chocolate deeply, searching for answers.

"Well, I wouldn't worry about it. I mean … maybe we can go and see them after the league is over?" Adam really wanted to see Misty and Brock again. Ash nodded.

"Maybe. So I see you've got some new Pokémon over the years?"

"Yeah, they're good Pokémon too. I wouldn't trade 'em for anything. So what about your Pokémon? Caught anything new?"

"Yeah actually … I've been training a Garydos." Ash sat back in his chair cockily.

"A Garydos? You've been training a GARYDOS!"

"Yeah, they're hard to train but it's like Charizard. Get it to trust you and they're an amazing Pokémon. So do you have anything rare?"

"Well … there is one thing. I have a Dratini stored away at Professor Oak's lab."

"You caught one of the most legendary Pokémon of ALL TIME! Where?" Ash was on the edge of his seat.

"It was abandoned up on one of the snowy mountain ranges near Blackthorn City. So I took it with me to Blackthorn and let it heal in the Pokémon Centre. After that it didn't want to leave me; so it came with me on my journey. Professor Oak was glad to take it in and do some studying on it. He said it wasn't very well covered in the Pokédex." Ash nodded in agreement.

*********

"So what do you think they're talking about?" Pikachu looked through the glass window of the Pokémon Centre at the smiling friends.

"Probably a lot. I can guarantee Adam has all talked about how he caught a Dratini." Gengar replied with a chuckle.

"And I am _sure_ Ash has talked about how he's been training a Gyarados." The two laughed. "They always tried to out do each other on everything."

"Yep; I know that for sure. Remember our little bout?" Pikachu nodded.

"We both spent a week healing at Ash's house because neither one of us would give in. That was seriously dangerous. We nearly killed each other but … it taught them a good lesson in friendship."

"Yeah, that's true. I guess we were a bit too proud as well. We should of known when to stop."

"But the past is the past. Just got to learn from it, I guess." Pikachu smiled but turned around rapidly; he could hear some commotion going on behind him.

"Reflect!" Kadabra released an enormous barrier. He was protecting what looked like Growlithe. Charizard fired a powerful blast of fire at Kadabra but luckily his barrier held in place and neither Kadabra nor Growlithe were fried to a crisp. Charizard roared with pure fury.

"Come here yah little pest!" Charizard started to chase after Growlithe but with little look as he was big and clumsy.

"Excuse me for a second Pikachu." Gengar flew like lightning towards Charizard and stopped right in front of him. Charizard nearly trampled the dark coloured Pokémon.

"Get out my way Gengar!" Charizard roared.

"Oh, that's it I think someone needs a nap time. HYPNOSIS!" Charizard stood startled as hypnotic waves appeared from Gengar's eyes. Charizard starred deeply at Gengar and was quickly in a stagger. Soon enough the giant Pokémon hit the ground and was snoring like a baby. Pikachu scampered over.

"Wow. Your hypnosis attack got really powerful. Can't believe you took out Charizard." Gengar smiled.

"He'll be out for about 10 minutes. Enough time for him to forget about good old Growlithe. Speaking of which. GROWLTHE!" The dog Pokémon popped its head out from behind a bunch of bushes.

"Thanks Gengar. He was about to kill me!"

"What did you say to him?" Pikachu asked.

"Lets just say I hit a nerve and leave it at that OK. I need to rest anyway. I'm gonna go inside with Ash and Adam."

"OK." The two said together. They laughed.

"We still got it." Pikachu smiled. Growlithe walked off into the Pokémon centre. He lazily pattered up to the two trainers and jumped up onto Adams lap.

"Oh so you're back?" Adam asked.

"Yep, thought I'd just get away from Charizard for a bit." Growlithe smiled and got comfy.

"OK." Adam shook his head and smiled at the craziness of it all.

"So … can you understand what your Pokémon are saying?" Adam nodded.

"Yep. Gengar taught me how to understand the language. I think it brought me closer to them." Ash nodded admiring Adam's close friendship with his Pokémon.

"Well my friend; we should get to sleep as it's" Ash looked at the clock on the wall. "6:30am. We might actually get half an hours sleep." Adam laughed. The two of them went outside and collected their Pokémon.

"Charizard, Pidgeot, Chikorita return!" Ash held the three Pokéballs out as he asked the three to return. They did, now it was Adams turn.

"Kadabra, Hitmonchan, Scyther, Gengar return!" The Pokémon did and the two friends walked back into the centre with the rest of the Pokémon following them. Ash and Adam slumped down onto a couch. Growlithe jumped up and lay on Ash's lap and Pikachu lay on Adams. "Well this is a turn for the books." Adam yawned.

"I guess … they're just comfortable with us both." Ash smiled.

"I'm glad you came here yah know Ash … I really missed having a human friend around."

"I know what you mean. It gets sort of lonely on your own. Well now that we've found each other again we won't have a problem." Ash smiled. "Night Adam."

"Night Ash." The two trainers drifted off to sleep.


End file.
